How might literature change the world? American author Barbara Kingsolver has been asking this question through her best-selling novels and essays for years. After a self-described ‘curious childhood’ split between rural Appalachia and remote global locations where her doctor father was posted, she developed an independent spirit and an unshakeable love for the natural world. This passion manifested as activism during her biology degree, but despite becoming a scientist, it was literature than ultimately won out. Although she wrote several award-winning essays and novels through the late 90s and into the 2000s, it wasn’t until her novel The Poisonwood Bible was featured on Oprah Winfrey’s book club that Barbara skyrocketed to international fame. Barbara used her royalties to establish the Bellwether literary prize for socially engaged fiction, and she remains an activist at heart, with a body of work that is a testament to a belief in the power of the written word.
This episode of It's a Long Story is hosted by Edwina Throsby.
-
Show notes
The Bellwether Literary Prize
Barbara Kingsolver at Sydney Opera House
The Poisonwood Bible on Oprah's Book Club
Barbara Kingsolver on #metoo and feminists today
There’s a widespread assumption that we are all are better off in relationships, that you can and must find your soul mate, and that true love conquers all. Mandy Len Catron has been aware of the power of love stories, ever since her childhood in rural Appalachia in the American south. As the daughter of a cheerleader and a football coach, her family stories read like the perfect American Dream. But when the reality of life fell short of these idealised, and highly feminised, notions, Mandy turned to science to explore what other narratives might be available. From her research came a blockbuster essay in the New York Times, and then a book, How To Fall in Love With Anyone. Mandy continues to write and think about how the powerful narratives from our childhoods and our culture can be flipped into something infinitely more interesting.
This episode of It's a Long Story is hosted by Edwina Throsby
Show notes
Mandy Len Catron at Sydney Opera House
Mandy's New York Times Modern Love column
Arthur Aron's 36 Questions to fall in love
Elizabeth Brake on Amatanormativity
There aren’t many places where we aren’t boxed in to strict categories. For English singer-songwriter CN Lester, music has always provided a safe space where these restrictions don’t apply. Raised in London by a family that encouraged them to think outside traditional gender roles, CN, who is gender queer and uses the pronoun they, grew up to be a committed activist. As well as co-founding the Queer Youth Network and Britain’s first gay-straight alliance, CN has written a memoir called Trans Like Me: A Journey for All of Us: which is a must-read for all trans people and those who want to understand them better. Now, they run a queer performance night in London that has the salient motto: Don’t make assumptions.
Show notes:
CN Lester on 'Trans Like Me' panel at All About Women
Buy their book
My Gender Workbook by Kate Bornstein
Dykes to watch out for by Alison Bechdel
More info about CN's performance night Transpose in London
The daughter of Alice Walker, who wrote the African-American classic The Color Purple, and Melvyn Leventhal, a Jewish civil rights lawyer, Rebecca Walker’s intersecting and sometimes jarring identities were the foundation of her career. In 1992, her article for Ms Magazine ‘I am the Third Wave’ crystallised her thinking around feminism and activism. Its massive success spurred on her work: she established the Third Wave Fund to support young women from diverse backgrounds to pursue activism and leadership. Multiple memoirs, essay collections and a novel followed. Rebecca’s work has always been a response to her personal situation, be it family, identity, becoming a mother, masculinity, race, Buddhism, or a combination of all of these, and she has developed a strong and compelling ethos about what it means to live a feminist life in an ever-changing world.
This episode of It's a Long Story is hosted by Edwina Throsby.
Show notes
'I am the Third Wave' article
Rebecca Walker on beauty as resistance
On Third Wave feminism
Rebecca Walker's bibliography
As a middle-class girl from a happy family, Kate Bolick’s life was on track: go to college, get a job, and then, become a wife. But after losing her mother, Kate began to question this predictable trajectory. In 2011, when she was in her thirties and still unmarried, Kate wrote an article that wove together her personal story with an economic analysis of singledom in the 21st Century. It was called All the Single Ladies and it became an online sensation. It served as the catalyst for Kate’s first book called Spinster: Making a life of one’s own. The memoir reflects on the intergenerational lessons and legacies of feminism, and is a call to arms for autonomous women everywhere.
--
Raised in small town New Jersey, lifelong bookworm Fran Lebowitz has always done things on her own terms. After getting expelled from highschool, she answered the call and moved to New York City to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. She quickly became part of the legendary New York club scene of the 1970s, hanging out at Max’s Kansas City and writing for Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine. Her best-selling memoirs Metropolitan Life and Social Studies are brilliant chronicles of these times. Since then, she’s been watching as the world evolves and changes: and whether it’s sexuality, AIDS, activism, feminism, technology or presidents, she will most definitely have an opinion on it.
This episode of It's a Long Story is hosted by Edwina Throsby.
Watch videos of Fran Lebowitz at Sydney Opera House on the Talks & Ideas Youtube Channel.
Growing up in the small community of Mimili in South Australia, Zaachariaha Fielding always knew he wanted to entertain. Moving to the city as a teenager, he quickly became a part of Adelaide’s music scene, before trying his hand on the reality TV show The Voice. But it’s in the duo Electric Fields where Zaachariaha has really begun to thrive. Crossing genres like soul, pop and electronica, the musical partnership with Michael Ross has led him to massive stages all around Australia and the world, and in 2017 they scored Best New Talent at the NIMA Awards. From intimate soulful odes to uplifting songs in Pitjantjara language, Electric Fields have become an unmissable part of any lineup. This episode of It's a Long Story is hosted by Emily Nicol.
Irish Mythen has always had a love for the road. Moving as a kid from the south-east coast of Ireland to Africa and the Middle East, the sights, sounds and stories of these places inspired her. Like any good troubadour, she’s since traveled extensively, gathering tales and meeting people. Since then, Irish has built a strong following on the international folk music circuit, opening for the likes of Melissa Etheridge and Rod Stewart and taking the stage at some of Australia’s biggest festivals like Bluesfest and Woodford. Her powerful voice, paired with a sense of humour and knack for understanding people, instantly wins over crowds wherever she goes.
This episode of It's a Long Story is hosted by Emily Nicol.
Raised between Darwin and his ancestral home of Gabagaba in Papua New Guinea, Airileke Ingram was drumming from a young age. His grandfather taught him traditional techniques, igniting a love for percussion that led to a world tour with the Australian Youth Orchestra. Since then, Airileke has played with some of our most prominent Indigenous musicians, soundtracked a Hollywood film and scored an ARIA nomination. But it’s his passion for making community through music that really drives Airileke. His latest collaboration is Sorong Samarai, featuring West Papuan independence leader Benny Wenda. It brings together a talented mix of musicians from across Oceania, and is a rallying cry for freedom for West Papuans, sharing the unifying message ‘One people, one soul, one destiny’.
This episode of It's a Long Story is hosted by Emily Nicol.
Tamika Mallory has been protesting pretty much her entire life. From joining Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network at the age of 15 to working with the Obama administration on gun control legislation. As the national co-chair of the Women's March on Washington, Tamika proved that women are at the centre of the resistance against the Trump presidency. The Women's March was the largest single-day protest in US history and worldwide participation was estimated at being over 5 million. The movement sent a bold message to the new US government on its very first day in office that women's rights are indeed human rights.
This episode of It's a Long Story is hosted by Marc Fennell.
Author, politician, and former international civil servant, Shashi Tharoor is a man of many talents. He spent nearly 29 years at the United Nations as a peacekeeper and refugee worker culminating as undersecretary general. He's published 16 books, won numerous literary awards and was named by the 1998 World Economic Forum in Davos as a Global Leader of Tomorrow. Currently, Shashi is serving his second term as Congress MP in India. This episode of It's a Long Story is hosted by Marc Fennell.
Born in Nigeria to a Muslim father and a Christian mother, Inua Ellams fled with his family at age 12 to the UK. He spent his youth in London, then Dublin, then London again, and has said that his teenage years were characterised by perpetual crises of identity. Inua spent his life creating art, writing poetry, and going on long walks through the city. While everyone else was sleeping, he was searching for some sense of identity. This episode of It’s a Long Story is hosted by Marc Fennell.
Born in North Korea in 1993, Yeonmi Park grew up in a society devoted to ‘Dear Leader’ Kim Jong-Il. As a child she regularly came across dead bodies on the street and spent months at a time without electricity. And people she knew were executed for merely watching American movies. In 2007 Yeonmi and her mother escaped into China, but were captured and sold to human traffickers. Two years later they reached the Mongolian border, and eventually arrived in South Korea. This episode is hosted by Marc Fennell.